Contributor: Greg Wittbecker

Netback calculation is a mechanism to determine the highest revenue return for a product expressed on an FOB smelter basis.

Extruders flagged mounting Gulf supply risks, tight US inventories, and a shift toward scrap-driven billet economics.

The shipment data on primary metals ex Canada is not validating what people are saying about higher exports yet.

Midwest aluminum premiums are converging with replacement costs as Gulf supply risks lift duty-paid import replacement near $1.05 per pound.

ALBA joins Qatar’s 40% curtailment of 260,000 tons, bringing cumulative curtailments to 560,000 tons.

The market has been naturally fixated on the disruption of aluminum exports from the Persian Gulf. However, there is another shipping problem that also may have repercussions on the movement of manufactured goods originating in the Pacific. That is extreme congestion at the Panama Canal.

Chinese firm GCL is exploring a 3 milllion-ton-per-year aluminum smelter in Nigeria, but historical failures and questionable capex estimates raise doubts.

These producers are not rookies. They understand how to manage the long supply chains from the Gulf into the US.

The war in the Persian Gulf is still fluid and the risk to production and shipments remain grave

The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) has released its monthly report on primary production, showing global production at 6.317 million tons for January. This reflects a 0.27% month-on-month (m/m) increase in daily output.